The Secretary of State for the Economy, Gonzalo García Andrés, advanced this Friday that the Government will formalize in the “next weeks” the request for the second payment of the european fundswhich is the highest of the entire plan with a total of €12 billion.
This second payment – which would be added to the first, of 10,000 million, and to the pre-financing of 9,000 million – is linked to the fulfillment of the milestones scheduled for the second half of 2021, among which was the labor reform, recalled García Andrés during his participation in the event ‘Looking at the future. EY’s Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan.
Additionally, the Government is already working on the preparation of an addendum to the Recovery Plan for loan applications with the aim of accelerate the implementation of investments and reformsparticularly in area of energy transition.
García Andrés has argued that the Recovery Plan is a “fundamental axis” when dealing with the economic consequences of the war in Ukraine, since a short-term reaction must be combined with a “medium and long-term vision” because “well-being will depend on what we do now (…) for many years”.
has recognized that the economic impact of the war “is brutal” in the short term, fundamentally due to the rise in energy prices, although “there is no evidence to fear that the recovery might be derailed”, since the economy was “in a solid situation” before the conflict.
He added that Spain will be less affected than other European countries by the conflict given its less dependence on Russian gas, to which is added that it has “a very powerful gas infrastructure“which might turn the country” into the ‘hub’ (distribution center) of gas to Europe”. In any case, he has advocated for fight the rise in prices in two ways: separating the price of electricity from the price of gas and with an income agreement that offers a “longer horizon, three or four years” on the evolution of wages and capital income.
The Secretary of State has trusted that this combination of energy measures and income pact “will be an antidote to uncertainty”, while at the same time he has urged “to join forces even more” of public institutions, social agents and political formations .
